About

Make Music New York Inc. is a NYC-based nonprofit that organizes two annual, participatory musical celebrations: Make Music New York on June 21st, the summer solstice, and Make Music Winter on December 21st, the winter solstice.

Make Music New York

Now in its ninth year, Make Music New York, “the largest music event ever to grace Gotham” (Metro New York), is a unique festival of 1,000+ free concerts in public spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City, all on June 21st, the first day of summer. MMNY takes place simultaneously with similar festivities in more than 726 cities around the world — a global celebration of music making.

Completely different from a typical music festival, MMNY is open to anyone who wants to take part.

From 10 in the morning to 10 at night, musicians of all ages, creeds, and musical persuasions — from hip hop to opera, Latin jazz to punk rock — perform on streets, sidewalks, stoops, plazas, cemeteries, parks and gardens. From high school bands to marquee names, MMNY is open to anyone who wants to take part, enjoyed by everyone who wants to attend.

Over 1,000 MMNY concerts have taken place in each of the last five years.

The next Make Music New York is on Sunday, June 21, 2015.

Make Music Winter

Make Music Winter, first launched in 2011, is a free, outdoor musical event each December 21st that turns audiences into music makers. Inspired by Phil Kline’s annual Unsilent Night – the boombox parade that has become an international tradition – Make Music Winter transforms New York’s cityscape with twelve participatory musical parades on the winter solstice, running the gamut of musical genres.

Parade partners and lead artists in 2013 included Jonathan Batiste, Phil Kline, Harold Rosenbaum, Chris Herbert, Los Pleneros de la 21, the Times Square Alliance, Friends of the High Line, BAM, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, El Puente, Spectrum NYC, and many more. The full 2013 schedule is listed on the Make Music Winter page. Our 2014 schedule will be posted in November.

The next Make Music Winter will take place on Sunday, December 21, 2014.